There can be no doubt that the girls and women of Afghanistan need a helping hand every step of the way in order to continue their education. The cultural and social taboos that restrict women’s access to education are threaded into the day-to-day customs and time-honored traditions of society. Marriage, child-bearing and rearing, and care for the extended family-- these are traditions that add meaning, beauty and joy to the lives of women and their family. In and of themselves they are worthwhile and, indeed, necessary social practices which must not be hindered; however, coupled with extreme restrictions on movement and total dependence on male family members these traditions narrow the boundaries of a woman’s life to the four walls which bound the women’s section of a house, known as a zenana or tabakay anas. For the mind to soar beyond the reaches of a zenana, the women must at least have access to an education which introduces them not only to literacy and numeracy, but also to the collective voice of the human race expressed as expressed through philosophy, theology, poetry, fiction, history and more.

Women in front of their home in Andkhoy, Faryab

If a woman’s world is forever to be bounded by a dark veil over her eyes, if her home allows her only a glimpse of the clear blue sky and she cannot even follow a cloud as it floats away from the small patch of sky that is visible to her, then how much of the richness of life is lost to her, we, who are free, cannot ever truly fathom. The day women submit completely to their imprisonment, their minds will cease to explore. And there is no greater loss than the loss of honest curiosity in a healthy mind.

Furthermore, Barakat will pay the families of the girls a small amount in order to compensate them for the loss of labor that would otherwise have been provided by their ward. The total cost of a girl’s education will be US $560/year. And the gift that each girl receives from the fulfillment of her request to Barakat and to you, is a year in which her horizons will open up just a little bit more. We at Barakat humbly submit this request to you because we too are in need of your support, in order to ensure the continuation of these girls' educations..

Supportive families are rare: A young Literacy Course teacher and her father

stand in front of a Literacy Course house in Qurghan, Faryab